III

A feature of the Community is the High Ethicalness

Short Rosary

(composed from the book “Agni Yoga. Community”)

AUM TAT SAT. AUM

AUM TAT SAT. AUM

1. The main understanding will be of the fact that labor can be relaxation. Many amusements will have to be abolished. Chiefly, it must be understood that the products of science and art are for education, not diversion. Many amusements will have to be destroyed as hotbeds of vulgarity. The forefront of culture must sweep away the dens of fools passing time over a mug of beer. Likewise, the use of profanity must find a far more severe penalty. Likewise, manifestations of narrow specialization must be disapproved. (63)^[1]

AUM

2. Cupidity is coarse ignorance. Only true cooperation can save from such a malignant mange. A greedy man has a stamp on his face. He is not concerned with the heart; his cup is a bitter one. And for the greedy man the Subtle World is only a source of torment. (113)

AUM

3. We do not love the ignorant, We do not love cowards who in their terror trample the possibilities of evolution.

Extinguishers of fires, haters of the Light, are you not all alike, from whatever side you come crawling! You wish to put out the flame of knowledge; but the ignorant community is a prison, because community and ignorance are incompatible. It is necessary to know. Believe not, but know! (119)

AUM

4. People do not eat corpses, yet slaughtered animals are eaten. One must ask, “Wherein is the difference—is not a slaughtered animal a corpse?” We advise not to use meat for reasons of simple goalfitness. Indeed, anyone understands that to make use of decomposing cells is harmful. But when does this decomposition begin? At the moment of cessation of the functions of life the body looses its protective radiation and decomposition sets in immediately. Therefore, worldly wisdom about not eating corpses is hypocritical. We recommend farinaceous food, dairy products and vegetables, where there is less decomposition. (148)

AUM

5. True, the life process of plants resembles that of animals, but one can see that the decomposition of plants begins much later. Vegetables are better used either fresh or dried in great heat. It is better us use unleavened bread made without fats. There are enough fatty substances in butter and vegetable oil.

Your term “vegetarianism" is unfortunate; it emphasizes a division according to principle and not according to essence.

In the community food must be vegetable, for the members of the community must follow the utmost goalfitness.

On the path let us not be finicky. Let us not forget the usefulness of resin in all its forms. On the path let us remember that eating twice a day is sufficient. Let us not sit too long at table. (148)

AUM

6. Let us recall the qualities absolutely inadmissible in the community; ignorance, fear, falsehood, hypocrisy, cupidity, usurpation, drunkenness, smoking, and obscenity. Someone may say, “Do you wish to collect angels?” We then shall ask, “Are all those on earth liars or drunkards? We know many who are courageous and sincere.” Again they will say, “The requirements are too high.” We shall reply, “Can it be that you have only foul-talkers and self-seekers? All these requirements are frightening only for the lowest citizen, who hides his wealth under his threshold. In the Himalayas, We have long ago found people to whom the above stipulations are no bugbear. (178)

AUM

7. I advise to observe the community members. If someone cannot contain all the conditions, let him be deprived of all possibilities of cooperation. Let him act as a beast until he feels drawn toward humankind.

As long as the consciousness has not accepted the community, the smallest thing seems insurmountable. It is possible to renounce every weakness if the task of the future is clear. Think about being annexed to the future and fear of the present will dissolve. Do not take what has been said as a pompous phrase, but masons, square up your stony hearts. After the heart the brain petrifies.

Can one doubt that you would want to conquer your defects? For a beginning, do not lie, be not afraid, and learn each day. It is not necessary to repeat this to community members, but there can be pseudo-members, and these must be isolated as if infected with syphilis. (178)

AUM

8. It is desirable to widely gather young coworkers. The Teacher would prefer to see an intense searching rather than petty gossip. Darkness lies over those who are afraid; real harm is less noticeable to them than one new hair on the head of a neighbor. Is it possible to think about the community when occupied with gossip? But the difficulty is lessened when we know that the soldiers of slander may be kept beyond the walls of the new cities. (208)

AUM

9. Let slanderers look over the list of everything slandered by them. Will not this be a list of human evolutionary discoveries? No slander has any influence on the effect of evolution. But slander is a devourer of vital fuel, and from the standpoint of goalfitness must be destroyed. An absurd abusive word is not often accompanied by clear-cut thought, but slander, by nature, is akin to everything reared in darkness, and thought carries it inaudibly like an owl in flight.

Someone asks, “Why pay so much attention to slander?” The inquirer does not know about economy of energy.

It is not necessary to grieve about the road's being littered, but woe to those who strew the rubbish! (208)

AUM

10. All compulsion is condemned. Compulsory slavery, compulsory marriage, compulsory labor, incites rebellion and condemnation. But of all the forms of compulsion the most culpable and ugly is the compulsory community. Each compulsion is doomed to a reaction, and the worst form of compulsion is doomed to the worst reaction. (219)

AUM

AUM TAT SAT. AUM

^[1] The number of the paragraph, taken from the book “Agni Yoga. Community”, has been indicated in circle brackets after each paragraph.